Changers
by Rendered Reversed
Summary: Some say we bring death. Some say we bring forth misfortune. But in fact, those who give the ability to become stronger, more lively and understanding than before, with knowledge to continue living… Some people call those beings-Angels.


**Rendered Reversed now proudly presents to you… her semi-Christmas special! Hooray! …Considering that I'm considering putting this into the Gakuen Alice area on how Mikan might grow up, I'm also giving this as a Christmas gift because **someone **just happened to procrastinate to the very last minute. Ahem, someone(s). Well, without further ado, R+R's Sort-Of-X-mas Special! Applauds should go here, please. This completely beat baking Christmas cookies. Hooray to self talent, as well!**

**I do not own Gakuen Alice, if I ever decide to post this there.**

An eerie aura flaunted itself freely through the midnight air, wrapping itself around the warm, oblivious bodies of those who slept. It felt oddly out of place, as it was Christmas Eve, but as they always said, _evil is where you least expect it. _Actually, it wasn't necessarily an evil spirit wandering about either. Maybe something in the middle, not as good as you could never expect, and not as evil as you would. Only two people would not be disturbed by this presence, and one was out on the mission for the other. The elder of the two was… well, who knows? He might as well be the cause of this. But whatever was out there now certainly wouldn't give itself away just like that; not without a chase.

A sigh appeared through the mysterious and gloomy haze. It broke the silence, and yet… those at home that night shivered as if their skin had been contacted with an ice cube. When those jolly folk slept, others went about their business. What job you may ask? Well, that's the point, after all. We don't know.

"_Always busiest around this time… I guess it's karma for our laziness,"_

"_Heh, what karma are you rambling about? We are the karma! While the elder ones are asleep, we'll strike those who dare underestimate or overestimate their existence in this world!" _

The air was suddenly filled with cackles of mischief and amusement. Hoots of laughter were echoing aloud, uncontained and seemingly alive. Though it was the sound that could ring in your ears for hours, no one awoke. No one stirred. Maybe the ones with a bit more sixth sense would twitch, but that was all. Even if they were careless and lazy, they did their jobs right. Professionals, as sick and disturbing as what they were doing was, it was still considered an important job. None would dare make a possible life-changing mistake.

"_Maybe… but I always preferred the innocent ones the best. That is, the look in their enlarged eyes as they face the truth… the truth about the lives they will live,"_

"_Hah! Let us not forget our place too. We were once them, and they will once become us. The ones that have fortune following their every step; the easy life,"_

Slowly, their din started to die down, lowering to just a murmur. Who were they to kid? All those who were among them had experienced 'the easy road in life'. Never again could they underestimate others. Gravel and beg, it could never change what they were now. Souls, wandering off and being the ones to destroy innocence, wreck dreams, change a point of view. They were, if you will, Changers. Maturity came with a price, a price that parents and adults thought they paid by raising their children. No, maturity grew on a person, though the parenting partially helped. It grew on a person once their innocence was stolen. Life was no game, and maybe, just maybe the lucky ones were those who learned this already by default. Others had to take it from the Changers.

"_I'll be off, then. Got an innocent one, happy-go-lucky and far too optimistic to be human," _and with a small chuckle, the mass of auras floating about disappeared, as if resigned to go finish what they were ordered to do.

_**______**_

With a groan, the brunette's hazel eyes fluttered open, staring into the darkness of her room. What had awoken her? Surely he had not come back from his mission yet. Two days tops, she remembered him tell her. He had also subtly apologized to her and told her he would make up missing Christmas to her. After all, her birthday was near New Years. But just in case…

"Is that you? Are you really back yet?" her voice called. Scratchy and in need of water, her hand automatically grabbed hold of a glass of water on her bedside table. Downing it quickly, her eyes scanned across the room, flickering mostly towards the corners and concealed spots. It was different, this time… Something else had awoken her. It had not been him.

Sighing and realizing just how much she wanted to sleep, she voiced out her thoughts once more.

"I know someone is there. I don't like to be surprised either. At least appear to me in a solid form. Don't pop out of nowhere, though! That's scary," Hmm. Should she give it an opening? "Shall I open the window for you to walk through? I think that may be the best option. He always comes in through there, after all."

A small puff of smoke coming from her glass caught the girl's attention. Immediately scooting herself to the other side of her bed, she began to watch curiously as the cloud of smoke began to dispute and form a figure of… well, a person. It began to solidify, and the brunette's eyes never left that specific spot.

"_Such a troublesome request, not that I don't get them from time to time... Say, what year is it?"_

What an odd question, the young female thought. Though only at an age of twelve, she was not left scared at something for any long amount of time. Her curiosity would take over before that happened.

"The year is 2009, Christmas Eve. Though I think it might be Christmas now… I'm not quite sure. It's far too dark to see the clock,"

"_Ah. I see…"_

With another puff, the gas cloud finally formed a solid shape; that of a young boy aged only around fourteen. His skin was tanned, and no blotches could be found. With normal black eyes and slightly messed up dark brown hair, he seemed quite regular enough. That is, except his clothes. It consisted of old cloth, possibly from Egypt. She could not tell.

"_Though it is quite old and you young folk might've forgotten, I prefer Ptolemy's form. You know, the young Ptolemy from Egypt," _Meeting her confused gaze, 'he' sighed; might as well get this over with. She was his only job for tonight, be it of ill or good luck, but seeing that this girl was stubborn, optimistic, and probably the ideal form of a child, it was going to be tough… very tough.

"_I go by many names, child, so please call me whatever rolls off of your tongue. Try to pay attention, as well, because I could easily strike you with one thousand volts. No interruptions, questions may be saved for when I say you can ask them, and don't try to be too surprised of what you hear,"_

Slowly, the girl began to nod her head. Good, she understood. Less of a waste of time, maybe this job wouldn't be so bad at all. There was nothing else to do in his cycle anyway. It was a never-ending circle of the same routine, if there was any routine at all. He was just about to start when the girl raised her hand. All right, he decided with a roll of the eyes. At least she's polite.

"So you're like Jin-Jin?" she asked after she saw his nod of approval, "He can shoot lightning, too! Sometimes he electrocutes me for no reason at all. I've gotten the hang of stopping it, though."

With absolutely no idea of what she was blabbering about, he decided to go with the flow.

"_I'm sure I can shoot far more powerful lightning than that 'Jin-Jin' of yours. Now pay attention, please," _he replied haughtily. With a sigh, he began. There was no turning back now. There was never a way to turn back, anyway.

"_What do you think of Christmas?"_

_**______**_

"_Wrong," _he told her.

"Eh? Wrong? Why?"

"_Humans," _he spat, _"Obviously don't understand anything… even if they decide it themselves. Why did Christmas start, anyway?"_

"Well," the girl began answering his question, "Christmas, if you take away the 'mas' gives you Christ. Christ was born on December 25, therefore creating—"

"_What did I say, little girl? Wrong answer,"_

"Wrong? Wh—"the now confused female was not given a chance to repeat her question, and was cut off.

"_When was Christ born?"_

"December twenty fi—"

"_Wrong,"_

"Wrong?"

"_Wrong!" _he sighed, tired of this silly arguing. He swore it happened every single time just to smite him.

"_Didn't the Bible say he was born sometime in March?"_

Stuck with that question, the girl began to stutter out her lines. She was beginning to waver. There was no way she could win this argument in the beginning.

"_Either way, your answer is wrong," _he told her. Before she could ask the most terrifying word ever, 'why', he began to start up again.

"_It is wrong because humans simply needed an excuse for a holiday," _taking in an un-needed breath, he started to begin a time of what he liked to call, 'the big revelation'.

"_Why, do you think that humans make up holidays of thanks and giving, caring and sharing, and all of that? And why, do you think, that even though they make special days for those things, that they do not even bother doing them on a regularly daily basis? Humans worry too much, is why. They begin to get stuck in reality, the reality they created with their bare hands from the beginning of the cave man. With a loss of what is right and wrong, what is good and what is evil, what is 'cool' and what is not, they lose themselves. They become afraid, afraid of their own kind. The only way to make up for these sins is to make a day to compensate for it. That is what they decided in the past. _

_But now, in the present, they lose sight of that reason too. Mortals forget. They forget far too easily. It is now routine to spend these silly, useless holidays on something they could be doing on a daily basis. They could be giving gifts, sharing and caring, making a world of peace, and yet… they don't. They pin their hopes on these holidays to refresh them of their past mistakes. They worry, oh yes, humans always worry of the past and the future. We learn from our past mistake, that's true. But for certain, we shouldn't be trying to look into every single detail to try to make ourselves perfect! Who cares about the future? Shouldn't we be thinking of the here and now? Shouldn't we be thinking about what we're doing now? We look back and see our mistakes, but those mistakes didn't have to happen if we had even cared two cents about what had been happening in the present! Future, future, future, well what about the present for a change of scenery, and what about how we're spending our lives now?_

_It may be in our nature to be somewhat greedy, as if to equal out light and dark, dawn and dusk, but we can help of how we think of things. Take religion, for an example. There may be a higher being and there may not. But why even think about the afterlife and what is so good there when you can be thinking about now? What if this is the afterlife? Will here be a never ending line of afterlives that you take on, trying to make your next afterlife perfect, but failing because that is your afterlife? Humans forget. They forget and try to move on with their lives. Some things, though, just can't be forgotten. _

_There is an overpopulation of crows. What do we naturally do? Try and balance them out, of course! There is an under population of pandas. What do we do? Try and breed more to balance everything out! But what if there is too many humans? There is too little pandas because we killed them all. There are too many crows because we killed off their predators. They try to balance the others out, but in doing that, they decrease numbers and do not try to steady themselves! As their population grows bigger and possibly the others steadier, we will only end up killing off more and continuing to try and balance them out. But what, what if there is nothing left to balance?_

_That, child, is a mortal's flaw that actually can be helped."_

_**______**_

"That… What you say is true. But some is also wrong. We humans do fear of what others think of ourselves. We fear and are shy, yes… But these holidays are not silly. They aren't useless. They are made not so we can forget them, or to use them mindlessly. Instead, holidays like Christmas are here to remind us. They are here to remind us that no single person is special. We are not all normal either. Instead, everyone is special, therefore being the 'normal'. By giving presents we not only make another feel happy inside, but we tell them that we care; we care about what will happen. It is true, we look too far ahead, but maybe that is because we worry about the others to come. That is a bad habit, but it is also a slow method of recreating lives for the ones ahead. There may not be ones ahead if we continue living on as we do, and that is what you taught me. Surely, presents are not for nothing. They have their use… and this world… it may actually have some hope, after all," a faint smile appeared on the girl's lips, and only now did the Changer realize she was not an innocent, but one who overestimated life. She understood, for the most part, but this girl… She believed in what the Changers told people everywhere. What happened was that she started to waver… Yes. That was it.

"_Hmm… You understand…"_troublesome, that was surely it. The word he had been searching for… Mortals were so troublesome.

With a smile, the female snuggled back into her bed. "My eyes have adjusted," she told him, "It is already thirty minutes after one o'clock. Technically Christmas, by the way…" A yawn made its way past her mouth.

"_Go to sleep. You've learned enough for today. You will not see me again,"_

"Mmmm," she mumbled, "Hey, Ptolemy poser?"

"_Yes? And I'm not a poser, child,"_

"You are one, and if you could do me a favor…"

"_Think what you will, and why do I have to do a favor for you?"_

"Could you check up on him for me? Make sure he gets back alive…"

"_What right do you have to order me around?"_

"In return… I'll give you your first Christmas present…" the brunette's eyes closed, and she began to speak in a whisper now.

"Tomorrow, on the day after Christmas, I'll prove to you… That we can give presents naturally. Overhead this very roof, look there tomorrow. You will see… something unexpected… and my gift to you."

"…_Alright then, you have a deal, young one."_

"Goodbye then… and Merry Christmas,"

The leaves rustled outside, and the wind blew against the window. The window that was now shut closed. Tomorrow, or today, was Christmas. Everyone would be enjoying time with their family… and she, instead, would be looking forward to the day after Christmas; the promised day where he would come back to the Academy. Yes… the day her stray black cat would come back…

Home is where the heart is, after all.

_**______**_

The day after Christmas had the same jolly atmosphere, and the Changer made its way towards the same house it had previously visited. That house with that same girl who had promised him a gift for 'Christmas'. What kind of gift it would be, he wondered. Something that fit on the roof…

Heading towards it, the Changer saw a tiny note sticking out of the shingles on the very top row. A smile snuck its way towards his lips. Only she would find a way how to make a Changer truly smile.

_**______**_

"Say, it's a nice day today, isn't it?" the female asked, her eyes shining as she talked to the **M**ale standing n**E**xt to her.

"Hn. What's so great about it?"

With a laugh and a giggle, she skipped fo**R**wards a bit until tu**R**ning around to face him.

"It'll be such a merr**Y** day today, won't it?"

"Whatever. It's not like I **C**are, anyways,"

"You still owe me a day. I'm **H**olding you to that promise," a sec**R**et**I**ve **S**mile appeared on her face.

"I swear, you're bipolar some**T**i**M**es…"

"Tell me…" the girl beg**A**n.

"Ye**S**?"

"Do you believe in angels?"

_Some say we bring death. Some say we bring forth misfortune. _

_But in fact… those who give the ability to become stronger, more lively and understanding than before… with knowledge to continue living… _

_Some people call those beings… Angels._


End file.
